Associated PressRahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, is shown conferring with President Obama. He has repented of his use of the word "retarded."STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Weeks after White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was slammed for his pejorative use of the word "retarded" in a closed-door rant, Rep. Michael McMahon announced that he has introduced legislation to remove words offensive to those with mental disabilities from the U.S. Code.

McMahon (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn) alluded to Emanuel when announcing the legislation to more than 400 people at a legislative breakfast today sponsored by the Staten Island Developmental Disabilities Council at the Staaten, West Brighton.

While McMahon's bill, named in honor of the late Democratic North Shore Assemblywoman Elizabeth Connelly, was introduced before the Emanuel episode, he said it would be "first step toward ending the stigma against American's with intellectual disabilities."

Of Emanuel, McMahon said, "a good person, a sensitive person, misunderstood the import and impact that that word can have."

Emanuel has repeatedly apologized for using the word, and pledged to work with advocates for the disabled to stop its use.

McMahon said that the "Assemblywoman Elizabeth A. Connelly Act" would replace references to "mental retardation" with "intellectual disability" in the U.S. Code, the compilation of the general and permanent laws of the nation.

References to a "mentally retarded individual" would be changed to "individual with an intellectual disability" under the law.

Mrs. Connelly championed the causes of the mentally disabled during her legislative career. McMahon was a member of Mrs. Connelly's Assembly staff.

With Mrs. Connelly's husband, Robert, in the audience, McMahon said, "We've got a serious mission, a serious course: To make the late Assemblywoman Elizabeth Connelly proud."

McMahon also announced that one of his staffers, Tricia Ryan, will be his "point person" on mental-health issues. Ms. Ryan worked for McMahon when he was in the City Council and also worked for his successor, former Councilman Ken Mitchell.

Parents and advocates for the disabled urged lawmakers at today's event to fight proposed cuts to services contained in Gov. David Paterson's budget proposal.

State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) said that she would ask the Senate Finance Committee to "audit and investigate" the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) in an effort to "find the money necessary to provide services."

With the state budget picture continuing to deteriorate, Ms. Savino said that Paterson's budget "is not the answer."

"We have to find a way to reduce expenses," said Ms. Savino.

Those remarks brought a response from OMRDD commissioner Diana Jones Ritter, who was also at the event.

"I don't need an audit to find efficiencies," she said from the podium.

Ms. Ritter said that Paterson had increased the OMRDD budget by 5 percent, and that she felt confident she could find a mandated $100 million in savings without damaging programs. She said she had found places to save last year without cutting services.

"We're still moving in the direction of trying to help people," Ms. Ritter said. "The budget does not provide resources for all the needs in the state."

Ms. Ritter said that despite budget cuts, OMRDD remains committed to the Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities (IBR) in Willowbrook.

"We are going to continue to support IBR," she said. "That's for the record."

Assembly members Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island), Matthew Titone (D-North Shore) and Lou Tobacco (R-South Shore) asked the council members to tell them where budget savings may be found.

Tobacco said that council members could anonymously make waste-cutting suggestions at the Web site stopgovernmentwasteny.com.

But still there was concern.

Liz Devoti, whose son, Nicholas, 22, has mental retardation, said that she has felt a "lack of support and direction" from OMRDD.

"I am no longer a valued partner," she said.

Genevieve Benoit, executive director of A Very Special Place, said that the Island could lose $5.4 million in funding for day rehabilitation, residential placement and coordinated services programs.

"We fear staff cuts will become inevitable," she said, which would lead to program reductions down the line.